Just a short 14-hour drive....

With a H/T to Rob Neyer, the American town farthest from a Major League city goes to Turner, Montana, where it takes a 14-hour drive to get to the closest MLB stadium. Sucks to be them....

How old is your last-place team?

Quote from John Perrotto's latest On the Beat at Baseball Prospectus:

Contrary to popular opinion, the Pirates have not been rebuilding forever. It just seems that way. Since Sid Bream beat Barry Bonds’ throw home to rally the Braves to a 3-2 victory in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game Seven of the 1992 National League Championship Series, the Pirates has been undergoing one rebuilding program after another.

However, after one of the largest in-season makeovers of a roster in recent memory, Pirates general manager Neal Huntington says the rebuilding is over. He held a team meeting Friday night before the opener of a four-game series against the Nationals to tell the players who had survived the purge and those who had just joined the organization that the dust had cleared.

"These are our 25 guys, for the most part, the group we are moving forward with," Huntington said subsequently. "This is the team we want to grow together and have them go out and outwork and outperform the competition and evolve into a championship team. I’m not saying that every guy on our roster now is going to be here next July—it never works that way in baseball. Every guy in that clubhouse, though, is going to have an opportunity to step forward and be a part of it."

Having read that while watching the Pirates on TV, I thought, "How many of these guys can realistically be on the next contending Pirates team?" Looking at their roster, I was shocked, because the answer is all of them (which isn't to say all of them will be on the next contending Pirates team because someone has to come off the roster for their slew of prospects to come up). Ramon Vazquez is the only Pirate over the age of 30 at 32 years old. The next three oldest Pirates are Ryan Doumit, Garrett Jones, and Jeff Salazar at 28. By comparison, here's the number of players 30 years or older on the other 6 last-place teams (Cincinnati and Pittsburgh are tied).

Baltimore - 9

Kansas City - 9

Oakland - 6

Washington - 9

Cincinnati - 9

San Diego - 5

Now tell me which major league roster you'd rather have if your team is in last place. I'd probably pick the Pirates, but that's ignoring the farm system. Including the farm, Oakland and Baltimore are surely ahead, but Pittsburgh is definitely moving in the right direction, finally.

All-Star Game

This summer, I've been finding myself less opinionated, which has influenced my lack of posting on the site. I apologize for that, but as I go back to school in August, I think my posting will become even further apart. Hopefully, some of you will stick with me despite the lack of content. Anyway, today's topic will be short and sweet.

I don't have many complaints about the All-Star Game. Part of that is just that the game doesn't interest me that much. They play an exhibition game like it's gym class (H/T to Joe Sheehan for that statement) and then use it to determine World Series home-field advantage. Can you say conflict of interest?

However, I do have one complaint. The rule that says the players' #2 selection will be used if their #1 matches the fans' vote is absurd. So at 1B in the NL, you're going to take the vote of the players stupid enough to not realize Pujols is the obvious choice? At 2B, you're going to take the vote of the players stupid enough to not realize Utley is the obvious selection?

A New Closer Emerges in Tampa?

I have a topic for you now. The Fantasy 411 mentioned Randy Choate's 2 saves in 2 days as a sign that he's the new Rays' closer. As Lee Corso would say, "Not so fast, my friend!" What his 2 saves is a sign of is that Joe Maddon is willing to play the 9th inning by situation. Nearly every manager plays the 7th and 8th by situation, but never the 9th because the 9th is set aside for the Closer.

On Friday, Randy Choate was brought in to face Joe Mauer with a runner on first. In Mauer's career, he's hit .298/.363/.391 against lefties, which isn't bad, but it's certainly worse than his .333/.423/.516 against righties. Maddon brought in a lefty to face Mauer. If Mauer reached, fellow lefties Justin Morneau and Jason Kubel would have followed. The Twins lineup is set up perfectly for opposing managers to use situational lefties against the heart of the order.

On Saturday, a similar situation occurred. After a Carlos Gomez single, the Twins had runners on first and third with one out. Switch-hitting Alexi Casilla was coming to the plate. Casilla has hit .250/.281/.304 against LHP in his career and would be followed to the plate by three lefties: Denard Span, Mauer, and Morneau. Again, perfect situation for a situational lefty like Choate.

Don't read too much into Choate's two saves. If he starts to come out at the beginning of the 9th like other closers, then you might want to consider him the Rays' new closer.

The Calm ... Before the Storm?

As you may have noticed, things have been a bit quiet around here lately. While I do like to write things for you, I tend to struggle coming up with ideas. If you have any ideas for me, please leave them in the comments, and I'll get back to you.

Daily Roster Finagling

SGPr = Standings Gains Points above Replacement

Yesterday's Pickups

Manny Parra @ MIN: 3.1 IP, 1 K, 21.60 ERA, 3.30 WHIP, -1.0901 SGPr

Yesterday's Benchings

Gavin Floyd vs. PIT: 8.0 IP, W, 8 K, 0.00 ERA, 0.50 WHIP, 1.0851 SGPr

Jered Weaver @ LAD: 5.0 IP, 3 K, 1.80 ERA, 2.20 WHIP, -0.2266 SGPr

Brett Myers @ NYY: 8.0 IP, W, 5 K, 3.38 ERA, 1.00 WHIP, 0.4578 SGPr

And with that magical performance, I think I'm done with this series. If you want me to keeping doing this series, let me know in the comments, but since I haven't gotten any comments since the series began, I doubt any of you really care.

Here's the conclusions I've reached from this series. If you need a spot starter, look at pitchers going in PETCO Park first. If there aren't any available, look for guys going against SD, SF, and SEA, especially if they're facing those teams on the road. Otherwise, you're probably better off with your set rotation, your closers, and a few middle relievers, but only middle relievers if your lineup is full first.

Just for the hell of it, I'll leave you with one last pickup.

Tomorrow's Pickups

Barry Zito @ SEA | 0.0538 pSGPr | 15% owned

Daily Roster Finagling

SGPr = Standings Gains Points above Replacement

pSGPr = Projected SGPr

OK, time to get stricter with my recommendations. On the whole, I end up with more right than wrong, but I hate to be wrong. I'm going to tighten up who I recommend even more which might mean 0 suggested pickups or benchings on certain days, but these are meant to supplement your actual rotation not be in place of your rotation so I think that's all right. If you disagree, let me know.

Yesterday's Pickups

Kevin Correia vs. SF: 6.1 IP, 3 K, 1.42 ERA, 0.95 ERA, 0.1527 SGPr

Unfortunately, Correia's Padre offense went up against Lincecum, so Correia didn't get the win, but he still put a good outing.

Kris Medlen vs. COL: 3.0 IP, 3 K, 15.00 ERA, 2.67 ERA, -0.5831 SGPr

"If you're the risk-taking type, Medlen could be a good pickup for you." Medlen looked like a rookie last night. 5 walks, 2 wild pitches, 1 hit-by-pitch, and 1 balk isn't normal for any major league pitcher.

Yesterday's Benchings

Jon Lester vs. TOR: 6.1 IP, W, 4 K, 1.42 ERA, 1.58 WHIP, 0.3722 SGPr

Despite all the reasons I gave, Lester still put a good outing. He was somehow able to get the Blue Jays to strand 8 runners in his 6.1 innings. Good job if you chose to ignore my advice, but you have to admit he was a bit lucky.

Tomorrow's Pickups

Nothing here. I picked up Ross Ohlendorf in a H2H league, but I've already lost the rate categories this week, so I no longer care about quality. If you have open roster spots, pick up some good middle relievers and setup guys. They're good for lowering your ERA and WHIP while building up your strikeouts in leagues with inning caps.

Tomorrow's Benchings

Armando Galarraga vs. COL | -0.0293 pSGPr | 37% owned

His last 4 starts haven't been pretty, having given up 5+ runs in all of them. True story: I was offered a 1-for-1 trade where I'd be getting Galarraga. My response was: "If I accepted this trade, I'd cut Galarraga and pick up someone worthwhile."

Mike Pelfrey vs. BOS | -0.2058 pSGPr | 36% owned

Pelfrey has more walks than strikeouts on the season, and he's facing the Red Sox in Fenway. First, I'd be putting Pelfrey on my bench. Second, I'd be looking for some fool to take him off my hands by pointing out how he has 5 good starts in a row, although you'll have to move fast since the streak will probably end tomorrow.